For me, it's a tough call, I've broken multiple bones in my foot, broke my nose (jumping off a sand dune), even had a couple of kidney stones (several hours of pain)

BUT.

The most painful, I had an ingrown toe nail at about 11/12 and it got quite infected ewww, the doc was going to remove a corner of the nail, then i was just going to go home... ok so 20 yearsago now, the doc looked at it, went "hmmm" and decided it was too infected, he's simply going to remove the whole nail..

No injections.No tabletsNo pain relief ...

So he coats my toe in iodine, goes a funny shade of red/purple when painted on skin, i was watching what they did, then he tells me to lay back, so i did, and out come the heavy duty pliers and other surgical cutting tools and ..

WHOLLLLLLLLLLY FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Imagine a coke can, the sound of the nail being ripped out sounded like a kid slowly pulling off a ringpull, not a quick pull, but a little bit at a time until it came out, I heard the nail ripping skin off, i felt everything, for a good 40 seconds of pain I can honestly say if there had of been more pain I think i would have passed out from the pain..

Next time you stub your toe hard and it hurts like crap, eye watering pain, take that pain and tripple it... that's how it feels yo have your big toe nail slowly ripped off without any kind of anesthetic or pain relief. - the more i think back the more i think he was incompetent.

I got electrocuted (non-fatally although some would argue, what's the word for that?) once and while I can't say it was particularly painful it was close to being real serious and I did have holes burnt in my skin. I was saved by a short wire, I ran out of wire before I ran out of arm travel.

I'm not sure which was the most painful between following 2 experience of mine.I like working in the garden and I like sharp tools. So the inevitable happened with an axe and fingers being to close to each other.1 finger had the joint cut open. You could look at it.The 2 other were less damaged 1 had 3 tendons cut the other only 2 tendons. It took weeks for the pain to be acceptable.

The second was an infection in the knee cause by a knee doctor with a injection needle. It got all infected and puss kept coming out of the needle prick hole. I went to the hospital a couple of times. It looks to me as if I'm to hard and they didn't take it seriously.At the last visit I had pushed most of the pus out of the knee and I told the doctor I didn't care about another cut in my knee. So he agreed to open up the knee. I was flat on the table and he put in a injection to anesthetize. I think I hit the ceiling when he made the first prick . I think this was the point when they realized it was for real ]So he cut without anesthetize. That was the cut of relieve.Best regardsJantje

Do not PM me a question unless you are prepared to pay for consultancy.Nederlandse sectie - http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/board,77.0.html -

1) Cauda Equina Syndrome - compression injury of spinal cord-- evulsion into the canal crushing cord at L4L5 (and the surgery to help- laminectomy and fusion). A few years ago, those pesky B cells decided that the squishy bits aren't enough, and have destroyed three disks already. Spinal cortizone is what is keeping me off the OR table for a second laminectomy and pin for now, but even having a needle jammed into your spine isn't exactly a wonderful feeling! I had to be hospitalized for several days before the first surgery simply for pain mangement. Once the need for Demerol and more-fine gets past a certain point, they need to keep an eye on you to make you don't stop breathing. PCA (a morphine button) and a demerol IV, and the pain in my legs was still horrific. Crushing the cord sends all sorts of nonsense pain signals- the pain felt in the legs reflects no actual injury to the legs at all. The crushed cord had also impacted motor impulses also, with transient paralysis on the left. Three very painful months of PT after the surgery, I could walk almost normally again.

2) Peritonitis - infection of body cavity - my initial diagnosis happened after my large intestine split down the side, dumping gut contents into the abdominal cavity.. and again, the meatball surgery done that saved me at the time, where they removed sigmoid and most of transverse colon...

Kidney stones are a side effect of the disease, I throw 2-3 a year, 4-7mm. Actually, next week after things settle down, I have to call nephrologist and schedule ESWL (ultrasonic shock wave lithotripsy) on the right because I have a 17mm staghorn that's never going come out as it is. ESWL breaks that monster down to a couple of ones that are under 7mm that can make their way out. Kidney stones sucketh with a great might, but they generally can be managed at home with prescribable painkillers. EWSL itself is pretty bad-- they create a shock wave that shatters the stone inside the kidney. Last one, the bruise on my back was huge and uglier than sin- never mind that standard kidney stone fun of peeing out razor blades. I'm so used to kidney stones that I can kick out a 2-3mm one without much in the way of meds.

Right now as I post this at 4am, it is because I am waiting for painkillers to kick in actually! I haven't been eating on weekends for the past two months so I could work.. but I broke down last night and had some McDonalds, and the partial obstruction that is giving me hell currently is bitching mercilessly. Intestinal stricture caused by inflammation at the ileum..

Pain and I are well acquainted.. as I have mentioned in the past, my hobbies (including arduino) are frequently ways I am trying to draw my attention away from things that the meds don't reasonably touch. Pain as an experience (as you are taught in pain clinic) is complex, and managing things without being doped to high heaven 24/7 is a skill that must be learned... staying on opiates at all times simply cannot be done. You need to pick and choose- tolerating the arthritis in the back is a good idea if you know that you're going to be fighting something worse that really does require the heavy stuff.. I often reserve the more powerful painkillers for when I need to work. I can avoid the tolerance building of continuous use, which then leaves plenty of upside. I can dose up enough to manage almost normally when I need it, if I avoid building tolerance..

Bloody heck focalist, I think that trumps us all. You have mentioned some of your problems before but never I think spelled it out. I guess I'll keep quite about the time I hit my thumb with a hammer then.

I guess there's nothing we can do to help except wish you the best and hope things don't get too bad, for what that's worth.

well mines not as bad as some, the two that really stick in my mind are 14,000v jolt from a crt monitor, luckily im right handed, 2nd is a moment of stupidity and lack of concentration as i put my fingers through a propeller on a model aircraft, it was doing 27,000 rpm as i was about to adjust the mixture